But who is watching the watchers?

.

You were warned. It now appears that threat of fraud and identity theft due to fact there is effectively zero background checks for the tens of thousands of “navigators” that will guide citizens through the ObamaCare state-based “exchanges” has become a reality.


Via Heritage:

there are already numerous reports of scam artists posing as Navigators and Assisters to take advantage of people’s confusion about ObamaCare. According to recent news reports, scam artists are calling individuals and asking for information to sign them up for their “ObamaCare card,” are asking seniors for their personal information to verify their Medicare and Social Security status and are going door-to-door threatening people with prison time if they do not sign up on the spot. The Administration is keenly aware of these reports and concerns, but has thus far failed to take appropriate measures.

(italics, ours)


Hold the phone... This alleged inaction was so last week.


Now, far from delaying, exempting, denying, waiving, obfuscating and generally being unwilling to even acknowledge this structural flaw, this problem is so bad the administration has sprung into action by doing what it is what they do best: installing more bureaucracy!


File this under “S**t that should’ve been figured out 4 years ago”:

Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner reports that with less than two weeks until the opening of the ObamaCare exchanges on October 1st, the White House is admitting the security threat is so serious that the Obama administration met late Wednesday to launch a new anti-fraud bureaucracy that will be charged with handling consumer complaints and educating Americans about the possible ObamaCare fraud and scams.

“Today we are sending a clear message that we will not tolerate anyone seeking to defraud consumers in the Health Insurance Marketplace,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said after the meeting. “We have strong security safeguards in the marketplace to protect people’s personal information against fraud and we will work with our partners to aggressively prosecute bad actors, just as we have been doing in Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.”

(italics, ours)


So, which is it? If there are strong safeguards already in place then why the need for yet another sprawling bureaucracy?


Chalk this up to bureaucracy-speak for not wanting to cause wide-spread panic but sowing just enough discontent to justify your actions.


And what of this new bureaucracy? In order to combat this fraud and identity theft, won’t it need access to the same information that the other bureaucrats at the exchanges are abusing? What vetting will there be for the new bureaucrats who will be watching the old bureaucrats? Of course, no details with respect to that are given.


This administration had 3-1/2 years to put safeguards and background checking mechanisms into place for the navigators and only now they are going to slap something together in a matter of months (?) to combat one of the most basic of modern-day issues?


There is no other way to describe this than pure lunacy. How can it be any other way?